About 9 months ago, I dropped my Motorola Droid X and shattered the LCD screen. It still worked fine but it was only a matter of time before I sliced my finger on the broken glass. I was fortunate to have a buddy that could lend me a Motorola Droid until my Verizon New-Every-Two option became available. As cool and functional as the OG Motorola Droid was, it was also just too slow for my patience.
So, after hearing that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was going to be among the first phones to receive Google Jelly Bean Android update, I opted to buy one early. I was quite happy with ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) but eagerly awaited Jelly Bean. And I kept waiting... and waiting... and waiting. Granted I had mine for only 2 months, but vendors and carriers had Jelly Bean for months before it was announced. And other vendors and carriers had already updated their version of the Galaxy Nexus to Jelly Bean. So far, Verizon hasn't made any announcement of when Jelly Bean will be available for *ANY* of their phones.
So, given that my mom wanted the same phone and my growing frustration with Verizon's Android Update timeline (or lack of a timeline), I traded her my brand new Samsung Galaxy Nexus (I had to send my original, faulty one back) for her old Motorola Droid X.
Simply put, it's a solid phone. I hacked my original Droid X as far as it could go and then brought it all the way back to stock Gingerbread, with *zero* issues. The only thing that could have made the Droid X better would be a faster processor. And, yes, the Motorola Droid X2 was exactly that... and it sucked.
So, once I get ready to buy a new phone later this year, what will I buy?
An Apple iPhone 5.
Why?
Every vendor tweaks Android AOSP with their own GUI and their own widgets. And then every carrier takes that tweaked phone and puts (dumps??) on additional apps that they believe "adds value", consuming more internal storage space. And what does the user end up with? A great phone, slowed down by all the eye-candy tweaks, with a shorter lasting battery caused by all the power-hungry widgets and with less internal storage than advertised, thanks to the extra (usually unwanted) apps that the carriers cram onto it.
This is Android's greatest flaw (and by extension, Google's greatest flub). Simply put...
THERE. IS. NO. CONSISTENCY. FRAGMENTATION, PEOPLE.
I literally never got this before. I love Android. I love Google. But after using a recent Android phone, an old Android phone and then a brand new Android phone, it was painful. Like glaring. And annoying. It was like being blindfolded and being randomly fed a $4 burger, a $0.99 burger and a $12 burger. There was no consistency to the taste. Eventually, you just get turned off by burgers.
Both the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Motorola Droid Razor MAX run Android Ice Cream Sandwich. Both are on Verizon's network. And yet they are massively different phones. Not just physically, but GUI-/Widget-/App-wise too. Users of one phone would have some trouble finding the same features on the other phone.
Now the HTC One X is also completely different too. And even more so given that it's on AT&T's network. Again, not just physically, but GUI-/Widget-/App-wise too.
And then there's the Apple iPhone. Between Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, it's the same phone. No extra apps. No extra widgets. No extra crap. The same great $4 burger, over-and-over.
Am I an convert? Not yet. But after using 3 different Android phones, my next phone will be an Apple iPhone. Go figure.
